


Nothing Doing

by sapphireswimming



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Angst, Family, Frustration, Gen, Gen Work, One Shot, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-04
Updated: 2012-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23265931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphireswimming/pseuds/sapphireswimming
Summary: Sometimes, Alphonse thought he was the only one who believed that Ed wasn't dead.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Nothing Doing

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8522124/4/At-the-End-of-All-Things

Alphonse sometimes thought that he was the only one who really wanted to get Ed back from wherever he had ended up after restoring Al to his almost rightful body. Certainly, everyone else said they wanted him here again, but what were they doing about it? Absolutely nothing.

He saw a softness come into Granny's eyes when she sat alone at the kitchen table, legs dangling inches off the floorboards despite the fact that the stools weren't all that tall, that she pushed away whenever she knew someone was around. But she never did anything. Just sat around smoking her pipe and taking care of her customers. He didn't expect her to actively traverse Amestris looking for clues—that wasn't her place—but she _was_ their grandmother. Why couldn't she at least pretend she was ready to do something?

Apparently the team of military men and alchemists that they worked with, lived with, laughed with, fought with, for those years were scattered to the corners of the world after the revolution.

Most were still in the service of the state and couldn't be spared to tag along with a twelve year old boy in search of a dead alchemist. The authorities all said he was dead. Held a funeral service and everything, and wouldn't listen to his assurances that somehow, he knew his brother was alive somewhere, just wanting to come back to them.

They were as helpful as they could be in their positions, telling him all about the brother's travels and relationships with the various men in the military, filling in the gaps in his memory.

But Hawkeye, Falman, Breda, and Havoc were stuck in Central, doing their duty along the military posts. Fuery and Shiezka and always running errands for the higher ups and never seemed able to do more than light up and say a hurried hello when they saw him around. Armstrong, an alchemist who, he had been told, had taken a liking to the brothers, was across the country in Lior and couldn't be spared from the rebuilding projects there.

None of them would join him in the quest. They didn't even believe him when he told them about the feeling in the pit of his stomach, the _knowledge_ that his brother was really alive somewhere.

And Roy Mustang, his brother's superior officer, the one who oversaw all of his missions and looked out for his welfare, was stuck in the bitter north. He had been able to speak with him, though, when everyone told him the interview would never be granted. The onetime general didn't like visitors. But his eye had lit up when he heard who Al was, answered every question the boy threw at him about his brother, and wished him luck on his journey.

He wouldn't come either.

But the subdued smile on his face told Al everything he needed to know. That he wasn't crazy. That brother was out there somewhere and that he wasn't the only one who knew so.


End file.
